


Jones and Jones

by TheSecondBatgirl



Category: Alias (Comics), Young Justice
Genre: F/M, comics big bang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-15
Updated: 2011-12-15
Packaged: 2017-10-27 09:28:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/294238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSecondBatgirl/pseuds/TheSecondBatgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>WHAT IF? Jessica Jones was Cissie King-Jones's aunt?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Jessica said as she stared at the social worker. "What do you _mean_ my niece is in foster care?"

"Exactly what I said, Ms. Jones," the social worker, whose name Jessica had already forgotten, answered. "You are Bernell Jones' cousin, correct?" Even though it was phrased as a question, the social worker was clearly stating a fact.

"Yeah," Jessica said. "But he's been dead for years. Died of fish poisoning. When did his wife die? I should probably go to the funeral."

"You misunderstood," the social worker -- who might have also been named Jones, but Jessica didn't actually care -- said, a hint of frustration showing in her voice. Jessica wondered if she needed a cigarette. That would probably help both of them right now. "Bonnie King-Jones lost custody of her daughter six months ago, for reckless endangerment." The woman hesitated momentarily, and then continued. "Since you're going to be taking custody of your niece, you'll need to know this information. Mrs. King-Jones was forcing her daughter to act as a superhero, and the authorities were called in."

At the mention of the word superhero, Jessica stumbled, and nearly fell backwards, but she managed to catch herself. The words "I need a drink" nearly escaped her lips, but she just stopped herself from saying them. Maybe she shouldn't have stopped. She wasn't sure that she _wanted_ custody of the niece that she hadn't seen in ten years, since Bernell's funeral. If she told the social worker that she needed a drink, maybe she wouldn't get custody of Cissie or Suzie or whatever the girl was called now. It would probably be better for her niece in the long run if she didn't. Her niece was probably way better off wherever she was now.

Jessica's life wasn't perfect. She was a private detective, and she did mostly superhero things, or at least that was the sort of stuff that it seemed like she was always getting work for. She drank too much, smoked too much, and was pretty much just a wreck most of the time. She knew absolutely nothing about raising a kid. A teenager. Whatever.

But the thought of Cissie being forced into superheroing, maybe even going through something like what had happened to her... well, she would have to be a far worse person than she was to leave Cissie in that situation.

"So when does she move in?" Jessica asked after a moment.

"Excellent," the social worker said. "She's currently at the Elias school. She's visiting friends this weekend, so you might want to wait until she gets back in two days. Besides, we'll have to drive down to Pennsylvania to get her."

"Right," Jessica said, as her mind raced through all of the things that she would need to change in order to set up the hellhole she called an apartment for a teenage girl. "I hope you have a car."

"I will be accompanying you," the other Jones (Jessica hoped it was Jones, anyway) agreed. "You'll want to talk to her therapist when we get there - her name is Marcy Money."

The next two days were a whirlwind of cleaning and shopping. Jessica also spent a lot of it trying to dodge Luke's phone calls - she really didn't have time for any of this now, not when she had to try and figure out where exactly her niece was going to be sleeping, and how Jessica was going to be supporting them both. She'd even been surprisingly sober - at least after the first night of it, when she'd gone to see Luke again. He'd made a few comments about her drinking, but they'd hooked up anyway. At least Jessica got it all out of her system, and then called Carol the next morning.

Carol was helpful. Carol was helping keep her sober. And most importantly, Carol had an Avengers expense account. And Carol had contacts - so Jessica now had a job interview at the Daily Bugle as some sort of superhero correspondent. She wasn't really sure that this was a particularly _good_ idea -- she wanted to try and protect Cissie from such things -- but at least it was the promise of steady money, and that was exactly what Jessica needed right now. Besides, it wasn't actually like she was putting on a costume again. And it would give her all sorts of things to warn Cissie about.

She should probably find out which superhero Cissie had been. Jessica didn't really pay attention to any of the teen heroes -- she didn't want to watch as more of them got hurt. There were too many memories. There was a blond girl hanging out with the Justice Society, but they were mostly grumpy old men, and she didn't think that they would have put up with any of Bonnie's bullshit. Of course, since they were a bunch of grumpy old men they were probably the exact sort of people who would call child protective services.

The drive down to Pennsylvania started off really boring. Jessica hated being confined in the car. Apparently she could have just waited for the social worker to bring Cissie to her, but honestly, Jessica didn't think that was very fair to the kid. Besides, she should probably get to know Cissie in her natural environment and all of that, not that a boarding school really counted as being her natural environment.

They were only half an hour away from Elias when the social worker's phone rang.

"Sara Smith," the social worker answered, and Jessica mentally thanked herself for _not_ managing to use the wrong name.

Smith listened intently for a moment, and then the car nearly veered off the road.

"She _what_?" Smith shouted, straightening out the car. Jessica took a deep breath. She wouldn't have actually been hurt in the accident, but she had plenty of bad memories associated with car crashes. And Sara could have been injured.

Smith was still listening, and Jessica was hoping that whatever was going on wasn't about Cissie. Of course, the world had never been particularly kind to her about such things, and she doubted that it was about to start now.

"We should be there in 20 minutes," Smith said, hanging up. She spoke very quietly. "It appears that there's been a murder at your niece's school, and Cissie is missing."

"If you're implying that Cissie had something to do with it..." Jessica began angrily, but Sara cut her off.

"No," she said. "I phrased that badly. Marcy Money was murdered by her ex-fiance - the murder was videotaped. Cissie got back from her friends' house just in time to witness the video. She yelled at a Congressman who was trying to blame it on violence in the media and then ran into the woods. Nobody knows where she is at the moment."

"Hurry up," Jessica said through clenched teeth, not really sure when she'd gotten to be so over-protective of a girl who she hadn't seen in ten years. For a brief moment she wished that one of the powers she had been cursed with was super speed so that she could be there now, but even if they did manage to get to the Elias School at that very instant, she would already be too late.

If Cissie had run off like that, there was no telling where she could be. And she'd already been exposed to something that she shouldn't have had to see. All the more reason why Cissie needed to be protected from the hero life. If she was affected by this, then there was really no need for her to see the nastier side of a superhero career. She wasn't cut out for this.

After what seemed like forever, they arrived at the school, and Jessica hopped out of the car before Sara had even parked. There was still a crowd gathered at the school, including a bunch of police officers. There was some sort of commotion going on, and Jessica recognized Superboy. It was hard to _not_ know who he was, considering the giant S was pretty prominent on his chest. The kid was carrying a guy, and he unceremoniously dumped him on the ground in front of the police.

"Here's the murderer," Superboy said matter-of-factly. "I can't stay, but you should throw the book at this guy."

He started off, when Jessica stepped up.

"Wait, Superboy," she called.

He stopped, and looked at her, some sort of recognition dawning. Jessica tried not to roll her eyes. She guessed that there was some sort of benefit to being vaguely infamous as a failure superheroine.

"What can I do for you?" he asked.

"I'm looking for my niece," she told him. "Cissie King-Jones. She's missing."

"You're her aunt?" he asked incredulously. He hesitated for a moment. "I guess I can help you go look for her."

"Thank you," she said, following him.

As they made it it into the woods, Superboy stopped. "Jewel?" he asked. "That is you."

"I don't use that name anymore," she told him firmly.

"Knightress, then?"

"Oh God," Jessica muttered. "Jessica Jones. Don't start with any of that bullshit, just tell me where my niece is."

Superboy hesitated. "Um, well..."

"Just tell me," Jessica said firmly.

"Cissie didn't take Marcy's murder well," he said finally. "So she tried to, you know, take down the murderer herself."

Jessica just waited; there was obviously more to the story than that. When Superboy didn't elaborate, she had to push him. "What do you mean, take down?"

Superboy fidgeted under her intense gaze. "Well, um, the thing is, she went out of her mind a little bit and tried to kill him. But we stopped her, and now she's kinda all freaked out and not really talking to anyone."

"Take me to her."

"Right," Superboy said. "Um, you can fly, right?"

Jessica hesitated. "I'm not that great at it, but yes," she said, as she floated a few inches off the ground.

"This way," Superboy said, zooming off. "We were going to take her to Wonder Girl's place, but if you're here...." he trailed off, and Jessica could tell that he really didn't _want_ to leave Cissie with a stranger.

"One of you could come along," Jessica said. "Having a familiar presence around after a trauma can be helpful." Jessica hated that she knew that one from experience. She didn't really know that she wanted to invite superheroes into her apartment, especially not a bunch of kids, but she also didn't want to start off by alienating all of Cissie's friends.

Superboy nodded, and they quickly found the other members of Superboy's team. She recognized some of them, but she had no idea who the ghost girl was. The blonde girl in the center of the group had to be Cissie, but the dark costume was not one that Jessica had ever seen before. It was fairly good for moving around at night. A small part of her brain was thinking that it was a far more practical costume than her Jewel identity had ever been, and probably a lot easier to keep clean.

"Cissie?" Jessica asked, trying to ignore the glares she was getting from Robin (who apparently wasn't imaginary) and Wonder Girl (who was wearing the worst wig that she had ever seen.)

Her niece didn't move, she just continued to shake, holding onto the kid who was probably one of those Flash people, so Jessica tried again. "Cissie, I'm your Aunt Jessica, and I've come to take you home."

At the mention of the word "home" Cissie looked up. She wasn't crying, not at the moment, but the red rims around her eyes showed that she had been at some point earlier. Instead it looked like she'd recently progressed to dry heaving.

"Home?" she said. "You mean like jail for what I did?"

"Almost did," Robin said firmly. "And nobody is going to send you to jail." He glared at Jessica, and she took an involuntary step backwards. She didn't know what it was about that kid, but there was something really creepy about him, and she _really_ didn't want to cross him.

"Home," Jessica repeated. "Like my apartment in New York." Jessica didn't really know what to say, she just knelt down beside the girl.

"Hey, Cis, I can't believe you didn't tell me that your aunt is Jewel!" Superboy said excitedly.

Wonder Girl squealed a little, and things suddenly seemed to be a lot less awkward. She guessed that the kids were more comfortable with her now that they knew she was one of them, or had been.

"Arrowette," Robin said, laying a hand on the shaking girl's shoulder. She didn't respond. "Cissie," he said, a lot more gently, and she looked up at him. "You need to go with Jessica," he told her. "It's all going to be okay."


	2. Chapter 2

Cissie didn't know what was taking so long. They had all told her -- _Robin_ had told her -- that it was all going to be okay, and if she went with her Aunt Jessica, who she hadn't seen in _years_ , she didn't have anything to worry about. But instead she was still at Elias, while Jessica argued with people. Cissie didn't think that she was going to be arrested - everyone had made it very clear that they wouldn't allow it, even though she deserved it. She had tried to kill someone. She had crossed the line that heroes were never supposed to cross.

She just stood there, wishing that the other members of Young Justice were there with her. But Robin had the whole secret identity thing that he needed to protect, and Cassie and Kon and Bart were... not always helpful. She knew that they were around. She could feel Robin's eyes on her, and at least that meant there was someone who would be able to step in if necessary.

Jessica was still talking to the police, but she finally threw up her hands and turned to Cissie. "We're leaving," her aunt said firmly. "Let's go get your things, and head back to New York."

Cissie just let herself be led along. Some small part of her was wondering if she should speak up and try to make a decision, but she was sure that she would only make a bad one if she did. She couldn't be trusted. At least with her aunt watching her, and the other members of Young Justice, she was sure that she wouldn't ever try to hurt anyone again.

She went through the motions of packing up a small bag, trying to ignore the look of concern on her aunt's face. She didn't really know Jessica - she didn't think she'd seen her aunt since her father's funeral. She didn't know anything about her, except she didn't think that Jessica could be worse than her mom was.

At least she had the proof now that her mom was wrong, and she wasn't supposed to be a hero. Her mom had been wrong about a lot of things.

"Are you ready?" Jessica said, picking up Cissie's bag. When Cissie didn't respond immediately, Jessica put a hand on her shoulder. "Look," Jessica said softly. "I know that this isn't an ideal situation for either of us, but we're going to have to make the most of it. Fuck, this is new to me too, and I'm making up most of this shit as I go along."

For some reason, the more blunt language made Cissie smile, at least a little. "Okay," she agreed.

*

The apartment in New York was pretty much hell. Jessica clearly had different ideas about cleanliness and things than Bonnie King had. You would think that Jessica, who had worn a mostly white costume, would keep better laundry. Or maybe this was her way of rebelling against it. Cissie tried not to comment on it, but she knew that Jessica was probably seeing the hints of disapproval in her eyes.

"Yeah, so, I'm not the best fucking housekeeper," Jessica said without preamble, as she led Cissie over to a futon that had been set up in a corner. The curses were coming more rapidly, now that they were away from Elias and the stodgy social worker. Cissie wondered if Bart even knew what all of the things that she'd heard Jessica say meant, and the thought made her giggle a little bit. She didn't want to know how Max would react if Bart decided to imitate Jessica's vocabulary. He would probably blame...

 

They would all blame her. She'd nearly... she'd nearly killed someone. She'd actually held the bow and fired the arrow and had aimed for the guy's heart. She had wanted to kill him. She'd gone _evil_ and it wasn't like the other heroes, who would start to do something, but the thought of killing would always jolt them out of it before they did. She'd crossed the line. If Kon hadn't been there, if he hadn't caught that arrow... Her eyes started to tear up, and she blinked rapidly.

 

"Don't dwell on it," Jessica advised. "It really isn't going to help." Cissie wasn't really sure how Jessica had known what she was thinking. She was supposed to be a better actress than that.

 

"How do you know?" she asked.

Jessica shrugged. "Been there, done that, wrote the damn book," she said in such a way that Cissie could tell meant the subject was closed. She would have to ask Kon later - he seemed to know a lot about Cissie's aunt.

But now definitely wasn't the time to pry. Except it really sucked - Jessica had seen her at her worst, and Cissie didn't really know anything about the woman. Well, she knew some things. Jessica used to be a superhero. She lived in a really crappy apartment. She cursed a lot, although she sometimes tried to reign it in. Judging from the apartment, Jessica smoked, and probably drank. It actually felt a little bit like home. She just hoped that Jessica wasn't another Bonnie - she really couldn't deal with that again.

Jessica's phone rang, startling both of them. "Alias investigations," she answered. There was a pause. "What do you want, Luke?" she said, rolling her eyes dramatically. "No, you can't fucking come over, my niece just moved in.... No, seriously. What the fuck did you _think_ I was doing all weekend?" Cissie had no idea who Jessica was talking to, but she was clearly missing something good on the other side of the conversation.

Jessica hung up the phone, and for a minute, Cissie was convinced that she was going to hurl it across the room, but instead she just pocketed the phone again. "I guess I should finish cleaning this up," Jessica said. "I did clear out the beer bottles and sh - stuff. Carol would have killed me if I hadn't."

"Carol?" Cissie asked.

"Warbird. She's one of those damn superheroes," Jessica told her, absentmindedly reaching out to rub her fingers lightly over a framed picture on the wall of herself and another woman, who Cissie guessed was Carol. "Well, she used to be one anyway."

"I didn't realize you still kept in touch," Cissie said.

Jessica sighed. "No matter how much you think you're out," she said slowly, "it is really hard to leave this life behind. Once you're a part of it, you're in the club for life."

"Oh," Cissie said. When she'd been sent to Elias, she'd had vague thoughts about how it was good that she could leave the superhero life behind her, and start over. Then she'd realized how much she could annoy her mother by putting the costume back on. She hadn't realized that by doing it this way she was making a lifetime committment.

But then again, you didn't really hear very much about retired heroes. Retired usually meant dead, at least as far as she knew. The Justice Society was still active, and they were all positively ancient. It really was a life sentence.

This was entirely her mother's fault.

Well, not really, but it was always easier to blame Bonnie than it was to think about what had happened.

"Did you ever do anything?" she asked Jessica suddenly. "I mean, something really bad?"

Jessica froze for a moment, and Cissie was pretty sure that the answer to her question was yes. She wasn't sure why she'd asked - she wasn't really sure that she was prepared to hear what it was that Jessica had done, and she didn't think that Jessica wanted to talk about it. She was going to have to live with Jessica no matter what the answer was; did she really want to have to live with her if it turned out that Jessica had killed people? Of course, it took one to know one, so maybe Jessica would be able to understand why she had done what she had.

The apartment got very quiet, and Cissie studied Jessica intently, waiting for her to make a decision. She should probably take it out of her hands.

"You don't have to tell me," she said softly. "I mean, if it's too personal."

"No, it's fine," Jessica said. "I was mind-controlled for a while. I did some pretty horrible things before I was rescued. But none of it was my fault. I just took a while to realize it."

Cissie nodded. But she didn't have the same option - she hadn't been mind-controlled. She'd made the conscious choice to try and kill someone. It didn't matter how much he deserved it - and he really and truly did. Heroes didn't do that.

"I'm going to go lie down," she said, heading toward the futon that had been made up for her.

"Okay," Jessica said. She didn't push Cissie, and for that she was grateful.

*

They settled into some sort of routine - Jessica still did her detective things, and Cissie had somehow won a scholarship to a private school in the city. Considering that the scholarship came from a Gotham fund, she could only assume that Robin had somehow been responsible. She owed him, owed all of them. But she hadn't seen any of the members of Young Justice since her move to New York.

This was the first Saturday she'd spent by herself, and Cissie knew that Jessica was a little bit nervous about leaving her alone. But Jessica had a case, and they needed the money, and Cissie had promised that she would behave herself and not get into any trouble. And it wasn't like Jessica was leaving her totally alone - Scott Lang had come by earlier that morning to check on her, and Carol just _kept calling_ and Cissie was sure if she waited long enough the infamous Luke Cage was going to show up. (Cissie still hadn't met him, but she was curious as to who this guy that Jessica was absolutely Not Dating was.)

The doorbell rang, and Cissie hesitated. She wasn't really expecting anyone.

"Who is it?" she called, as she looked through the keyhole.

"Cissie!" A familiar voice said from outside. "Open the door! Bart is threatening to go knock on every door, and you know he'll do it."

She smiled, and unlatched the door, and was promptly tackled by Cassie.

"Blonde?" Cissie said in surprise, when she finally managed to extract herself from her best friend's grip.

"Ditched the wig for this," Cassie told her.

"I like it this way, we match."

Kon and Bart both grinned at her, before they both ran to the kitchen in search of food. Cissie looked at the fourth member. There was no way... it couldn't be.

"Robin?" she asked hesitantly.

"Alvin Draper," he said, sticking out his hand. "Nice to see you again, Cissie."

She smiled, and pulled him into a hug. "Thank you," she whispered. "The scholarship, that was you, wasn't it?"

"You needed help," he said with a shrug. "And I just wanted to see what I could do to help.

Cissie did the only thing she could do - she pulled him in tight and kissed him.

"Woooo!" Kon said from the kitchen. "Way to go, Robbie!"

They broke apart, and Alvin glared at him.

"I mean Alvin," Kon said, not sounding sorry about it at all.

Alvin glanced over at Cissie. "We'll talk about that later?" he asked quietly, and she nodded.

He was a really good kisser. She wondered if Batman had a training program for those things. Supposedly Nightwing was _really_ good at it.

"So, um, why are you guys all here?" She didn't really mean for it to come out like that, but she hadn't been expecting any of them to be here, and she didn't know how they had found her. But considering that Robin was with them, she shouldn't have been that surprised.

"We came to check up on you!" Bart said, as he zipped over to her. "I mean, we haven't seen you in almost a week, and everyone was really worried. We wanted to come on Tuesday, but Robin, I mean Alvin, he wouldn't let us. He said you needed time or something, but it had already been a really long time, and did we give you enough time because we can come back in five minutes if that's going to help."

Cissie smiled. She had missed them.


	3. Chapter 3

When Jessica arrived at home after a really long case, she wasn't expecting to hear noises coming from the apartment. She thought that she had made it very clear to Cissie what was expected. She was really fucking bad at this whole guardian thing. She should have known better than to trust a teenager. At least it was good practice for the future in how to deal with irresponsible teenagers.

Of course, they both had enemies, and Cissie was pretty responsible. So it could be that someone was trying to get to Cissie...

Jessica did the only thing she could do - she kicked the damn door in.

"Jess!" Cissie said guiltily, as she looked up from where she was sitting with a bunch of other kids. "Um, you remember my team?"

Jessica sighed in relief. "Right, we met last week." She glared at each of them in turn.

"Right," the other girl said. "We were just leaving. See you around, Cissie?"

"Definitely," Cissie promised. She hesitated. "I don't know if I'm ready to go back to Happy Harbor, but... I will try to be around."

"We're here for you," the boy who was sitting far too close to Cissie for Jessica's liking said. She didn't recognize him. Probably Robin.

"Hey, Robin?" Jessica said sweetly.

He glared at her, not confirming or denying anything.

"Say hi to your big brother for me. I haven't seen him since I quit being Knightress."

He and the others all left without comment, although she could hear Superboy snickering.

"You know Nightwing?" Cissie said as soon as the other members of Young Justice had left.

"We hooked up once," Jessica said with a shrug. "He and Arsenal are a lot of fun together." She paused. "As your guardian I'm probably supposed to tell you to not do anything like that, but I'm not very good at this sort of mentor bullshit. But you probably shouldn't do anything like that until you're older."

"I really didn't want to know that," Cissie said.

Jessica shrugged. "You asked."

There was awkward silence for a moment, and Jessica really didn't know what to say. She had probably just crossed some sort of line.

"So, um, how was your day?" Cissie asked.

Jessica sighed, and sat on the couch. She really wanted beer, but she was really trying not to drink so much, not while she had Cissie in the house, and the other changes in her life recently.

"I had a meeting with J Jonah Jameson," she said.

"The newspaper guy who hates superheroes?"

"Not all superheroes, just Spider-Man." Jessica paused, and reconsidered. "Well, mostly just Spider-Man. I saved his daughter's life once."

"Spider-Man has a daughter?"

"No, Jameson's daughter. I don't think Spider-Man has a kid. But Jameson offered me a job, as... well, a superhero correspondent. I guess it's really a gossip column for superheroes."

"Like Mad Mod's column?"

"What, Super Fashion or Super Freak? No, I've got no right to criticize anyone about their fashion sense," Jessica admitted. She hated his column anyway, and she had no idea why the Daily Planet actually paid him. "If I did this, mine would be more... commentary, maybe. Jameson asked me because I have connections." She hesitated. "It would probably be better for us. The money would be more stable, and it would be better work hours. And less danger for you."

"I can take care of myself," Cissie said automatically.

Jessica snorted. "I can barely take care of myself, and I'm a lot older than you are." She sighed. "The whole private eye thing wasn't working anyway. I'd probably have gone broke soon enough, or gotten the both of us killed." Jessica wasn't really sure who she was trying to convince, herself or Cissie.

"I think the job sounds great," Cissie told her. "It still could be kinda dangerous though." Jessica was sure that Cissie was thinking of Marcy Money.

"All jobs have an element of risk," Jessica said. "But at least this time if I end up getting involved with some sort of superhero conspiracy it'll be my own fault, and not because the wrong person hired me."

"What sort of superhero conspiracy did you get involved in?" Cissie asked curiously.

Jessica waved it away. "Really don't want to talk about it." She realized that Cissie had been distracting her with questions. "That isn't going to get you away from talking about your company," she said, in what she hoped was a stern voice.

Cissie started to giggle. "It was just the members of Young Justice," she said. "We really didn't do anything. I mean, it was really tame for us. And it wasn't like I could just turn them away once they showed up - they were all really worried about me and we all learned the hard way that it's really a lot better to keep Bart entertained. If he gets bored, he'll start looking for something to do, and then there's no telling what would happen."

"Mmmhmm," Jessica said, raising an eyebrow. She thought it was an effective technique, or at least she hoped it was.

Cissie blushed, and Jessica felt victorious.

"So what else happened?" she pressed.

"They don't all hate me?" Cissie said, her voice clearly showing that she was both amazed by this and still not entirely sure that it was true.

"Of course they don't hate you," Jessica said, leaning forward to take her niece's hand. "You made a mistake. Friends don't abandon you." Carol and Luke and Scott were still there, anyway. And she bet that if she called up the X-Men Jean Grey would take her phone call. Probably. "It's only when you abandon them that's the problem."

"Cassie wants me to come back as Arrowette again," Cissie said.

"Cassie?"

"Oh, Wonder Girl," Cissie said. "Sorry, I'm not always good with this identity thing. Well, I mean, I won't tell you Robin's real name, but I don't think that Cassie cares as much." She paused. "I wonder if I can get her to ditch that stupid wig. It looks really bad on her."

Jessica laughed. "If she gets featured on Super Fashion or Super Freak enough, she might end up changing it herself." Then some of what Cissie had also said kicked in. "You got Robin's real name out of him?" she said in surprise. "The Bats are all anal retentive obsessive freaks."

Cissie smiled. "I thought you just said you hooked up with one of them?"

"Yes, well, Nightwing is an anal retentive freak. But I don't know his name. And it was Arsenal's idea, anyway." She frowned. "Stop changing the subject."

"Yes, Robin told me his name. I guess Batman finally gave him permission." Cissie wasn't completely sure that "Alvin" was really Robin's name, but it was better than nothing.

Jessica laughed. "Permission for a name. Sometimes I forget what a fucked up world we live in."

*

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Jess?" Luke demanded when he set foot in the apartment.

"Nice to see you too, Luke," Jessica said, ignoring his question. From the couch, Cissie was rolling her eyes and giggling behind her hands. Jessica guessed this was not the best first impression for her not-quite boyfriend to be making upon her niece.

"Working for Jameson?" Luke pressed. "Seriously?"

"It's better work," Jessica said with a shrug. "And I could use it. Considering my new responsibilities."

She saw Cissie stiffen, and get up.

"I'll just be in there," Cissie said, and Jessica winced. She hadn't meant it like that. She would have to talk to Cissie later.

"That the kid?" Luke asked.

"Yes, and what a great first impression you've made," Jessica snapped. "Look, I know that you've got Spider-Man on this wacky Avengers team of yours, but Jameson is paying me good money, and it isn't like I'm just going to write what he tells me. I don't do that, not for anyone."

Luke nodded, and sat down on the couch that Cissie had occupied until just before. "Right," he said. "But Jess, if you needed something, you know you could have asked me. Just because you've got a kid to deal with now, that doesn't really change anything."

Jessica steeled herseslf, and then finally just said it. "Two, actually," she said. "Well, it's going to be two anyway."

Luke's jaw dropped. "You're pregnant?" he asked her.

Jessica nodded.

"We're going to have a kid?" he said, sounding so hopeful that Jessica wondered if she had heard him wrong. This wasn't quite the reaction she had been expecting. Anger, maybe, or denial that it was his. Clearly she should have thought better of him. She nodded slowly.

Luke leaped up from the couch. "We're really going to have a baby?" he asked again.

"Yeah," Jessica told him. "We are."

He lifted her up and held her there for a moment. "That's.... wow," he said. "A baby."

"Yeah," Jessica said. "A baby. Our baby."

"And that's why you got the new job?" he asked, finally letting her go.

"Yeah," she said. "Better hours, less stress, except for Jameson's temper, and I can handle that. And it would be better on everyone, not just me. Plus, I really do think it would be better for Cissie to have me around."

"And you get benefits, right?"

Jessica stared at him. "When did you start fucking thinking about things like benefits?" she asked him.

"When you told me that we were going to have a baby," Luke said firmly. "Sweet Christmas, Jess, how long have you known?"

She shrugged. "I only found out yesterday."

"A baby," Luke said again. "You could move into Avengers Tower," he suggested. "Since we've got the new team running."

Jessica hesitated. "I don't know if I'm ready for that," she said. The disappointment coming off of Luke was overwhelming. "Besides, since I am working for the Bugle, do you really want me to be sharing space with Spider-Man? I'd have Jameson driving everyone crazy within minutes."

Luke still looked disappointed, but he looked like he understood her reasoning. "Well," he said. "I guess that works. But you want to make this more permanent?"

Jessica blinked. "Is that a proposal of some sort?" she asked. She hadn't thought that this was going to be how Luke would react. She hadn't thought he'd react _badly_ , but... she hadn't thought he would offer to marry her. She hadn't really thought that a family was in her future either.

 

But... she already had a family. She'd had Cissie for months now. She'd been almost like a mom to her, and overall she hadn't been doing that bad a job. And Luke... he had helped. He'd been really good to her, and she cared for him. She loved him. With the baby....

 

She would be a fool to say no. She loved him. They weren't the same people they'd been when this relationship had started, not really. They could... actually be adults now. They could make this work.

 

"Because if it is..." Jessica said slowly. "I accept."

There was a squeal from the bedroom and Luke and Jessica both started to laugh.

"Cissie!" Jessica said sternly. "Stop ruining the mood."

The door to the bedroom opened, and Cissie stepped out. "Sorry," she said, not looking sorry at all. "But that was a really bad proposal. You should practice at it, try it again and be more romantic! And why didn't you tell me?" she said as she turned to Jessica. "I would have like, made dinner or something. Or at least ordered something healthy to eat. Or done something else that would have helped."

"You were going to be the second person I told," Jessica said. "I didn't think Luke would appreciate it if I told someone else first."

Cissie seemed to consider it for a moment, and then nodded. "I guess that makes sense," she said finally, with a shrug.

"I'm glad you approve, kid," Luke told her.

"Yeah, well, at least I get to meet you now," Cissie said. "And I guess you're not as much of a jerk as you sounded like when you first got here."

Luke looked offended, but Jessica smiled. She was glad to see that Cissie was willing to stand up for her.

"Why can't we move in with the Avengers?" Cissie said. "I mean, you just said that Jameson would be annoyed. But why does he have to know where we're living? You could always keep this apartment and we can go there and then I can have my own room."

"You've got a smart kid there," Luke observed.

"You're just saying that because I'm giving you what you want," Cissie said, but she looked pleased by the praise.


	4. Chapter 4

Avengers Tower was interesting. Cissie had never been surrounded by this many superheroes, not even when she was with Young Justice. It was weird, being among them. Most of them knew her backstory, and they didn't seem to care. Captain _America_ didn't seem to care. Cissie knew that she should still be feeling guilty for what she had done, that the acceptance from the heroes didn't mean that she was excused from what she had nearly done, but it was nice to know that people didn't hate her just because of it. She knew deep down that she would have had to have actually killed him for Young Justice to stop loving her, and even then, well, she wasn't too sure about it. She had the suspicion that they would love her anyway. Same with Jessica - Jessica was like the family she was supposed to have. Jessica had been there for her, and was doing her best to show that she would always be there for her.

But to hear the same thing from Spider-Man and Iron Man and Captain Freaking America, well... it was almost enough to make Cissie believe that she could get through this, and maybe come out a better person. Enough that she was starting to think about picking up a bow again. Not so much about doing the whole superhero thing - she still didn't really trust herself not to cross that line. But enough that she had started to take advantage of the absolutely gorgeous archery range that was on one of the higher floors of the tower.

She wished that she'd been able to meet Hawkeye. She had a lot of questions that she wanted to ask him, about being an archer super-hero, and about ethics. She thought that he would have been able to help her.

Cissie finally finished her practice and carefully put away her bow, before wandering downstairs towards the living quarters.

But the thing was, even with all of the super-heroes around, she was bored. Living in the tower meant that there were all sorts of extra security measures, and due to the stupid rivalry between the Avengers and the Justice League, it was considered bad form for the members of Young Justice to come visit, especially with all the identity restrictions. Cissie had been hoping to see Alvin again - she hadn't really gotten to talk to him about the kiss, and she really wanted to. But seeing him involved going to Young Justice meetings, and she just... wasn't ready to be Arrowette again.

She needed a quick distraction, something that would keep her from thinking. So she collapsed on the really awesome couch in front of the absolutely giant television, and turned it on. She hadn't meant to turn on the news, honestly she hadn't. Especially because the New York news always spent at least fifteen minutes on superhero news, sometimes more. It was understandable, considering how many teams were based in New York these days, and New York might actually hold the record for most times a city survived being blown up. Naturally, New York didn't seem too keen on taking that title; most of the people that Cissie had run into had claimed that a much better title would be "most likely to survive a supervillain attack." Nothing really seemed to faze New Yorkers, she had to give them credit for _that_ anyway.

She was just about to change the channel when she saw Cassie's face on television. Cissie dropped the remote in shock. She knew that eventually Young Justice would get on television, she just hadn't expected to be watching them. Hopefully Bart wouldn't say anything really stupid.

"We have just as much right to be superheroes as anyone else does," Cassie was saying angrily. "Just because we're teenagers, it doesn't mean that we're irresponsible or reckless."

"But what about the complaints from Richard Pulilio about how he was assaulted and nearly killed by an archer?" the reporter was asking. Cissie recognized him - he was the same man who had been interviewing the senator the day that Marcy had died. This really did not bode well.

"Considering the man is a murderer, I really wouldn't take anything he said that seriously," Cassie said coldly. Cissie had never heard her that angry, but she knew why. Cassie was trying to protect her, protect all of them because of what Cissie had nearly done.

"But if one teenage archer went rogue," the reporter pressed, "then don't you think that you kids aren't responsible enough to be out there acting as heroes? Shouldn't you be licensed to use your powers?"

Cassie's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Even Superman has gone rogue," she snapped. "And I've never heard anyone say that he needs to have a license. No hero is perfect all the time. But we do the best that we can, and I'm really not going to sit here and listen to you insult me and my team. Either hold everyone to the same standard, or don't bother bringing it up."

Cissie could not believe that she was hearing that. It had only been a few months since Cissie had worked up the courage to yell at Superman. Now here was Cassie, basically pointing out that Superman wasn't perfect. Had the world gone completely crazy?

"That kid has guts," Luke said from behind her. Cissie nearly jumped - she hadn't heard him come in. She really needed to start paying more attention. If her mother had been there, she would have criticized Cissie for letting Luke surprise her like that. But Bonnie wasn't here now.

"Yeah," Cissie agreed. "Honestly, I..." she trailed off, not really sure how to finish. She didn't really even know what to think. She agreed with Cassie, at least to a point. But Cassie hadn't been the one holding the bow that day. Cassie hadn't been the one losing control.

"You what?" Luke said, as he sat next to her on the couch. Cissie wasn't really sure why he was there - surely he had other places to be than watching really weird news reports with her.

"I'm surprised she had it in her," Cissie said finally. "I mean, don't get me wrong - Wonder Girl is like, my best friend. But I never really guess I thought of her as a leader? Robin was always in charge." She shrugged. "And then I guess Superboy kinda thought that he was in charge, except he really wasn't? And then maybe me, but I'm not really feeling all leadery right now."

"Is that bothering you?" Luke asked her gently.

Cissie stared at him. "No!" she protested quickly. "Why should it? I'm really glad for her, she totally deserves the chance to do the leader thing. And Robin can't do it, because Batman doesn't want anyone to actually know that he exists..." she stopped talking because Luke was laughing.

"Sweet Christmas," Luke muttered. "I'm never going to understand that Bat. He really seems to think that he can be a member of that stupid League and be an urban legend at the same time."

Cissie giggled. "Yeah," she said. "It doesn't make a lot of sense, and it isn't really fair to Robin, especially because most people know that Nightwing was the leader of the Titans, and that Robin has been a Titan. But he still does what Batman tells him." Cissie wasn't really sure where all the resentment in her voice was coming from. She was frustrated that she hadn't really been able to see Robin or the other members of Young Justice since she had moved into Avengers Tower. It wasn't _all_ Batman's fault, though. Just mostly his fault, with the crazy overprotective completely insane identity paranoia issues. But it was Batman's stupid rules that were keeping Robin away from her, and the reason she hadn't been able to talk with Alvin about the kiss.

 _"Are you okay with what's going on?" Luke pressed._

 _Cissie sighed. "I don't know," she said honestly. "I mean, this is all my fault that they're in this trouble. The reporter and everyone - they're totally right, I was really out of control."_

 _"But your team stopped you," Luke said quietly._

 _"Yeah," Cissie agreed. "But if they hadn't been there, I would have crossed the line. I would have... I wanted to _kill him_ ," she said angrily. "For what he did to Marcy." She sighed. "Maybe they're right, and I am too reckless to be a hero. I just... I don't think that they should be taking it out on my friends as well. They didn't do anything." She paused. "No," she said. "The thing is, they _did_ do something. They stopped me. They did the right thing, and they're being punished because of how badly I screwed up." _

"You learned from your mistakes," Luke said.

"Yeah," said Cissie. "And they are paying for it. I just wish..." she looked away, not wanting to meet Luke's eyes. "I just wish that I could do something to help them, you know? But Jessica said that if I even thought of turning myself in for attempted murder, she would keep me locked in my room forever."

"Turning yourself in, in this case, really wouldn't help," Luke said. "You aren't being Arrowette now, right?" He waited for Cissie's nod. "Seems to me like you're trying to figure out what your boundaries are, and what you can and can't do. Heroes operate outside the law." He laughed suddenly. "I keep forgetting I'm an Avenger now, and technically part of the law. But my point still stands - we police ourselves. You try and cross the line again, and people will bring you in. Those people will probably be your friends, your family. If you think that there's any risk that you might end up doing that to Jessica, well, then, you should stay far away from the bow and arrow." He shrugged. "There's a reason she isn't Jewel anymore, she's still not ready. When she can trust herself again, then she'll come back. And when you can trust yourself again, well, you've got a whole big group of friends who would like to welcome you back. But they'll wait for you, because that's what your family should do."

There was a trace of bitterness to his voice, but Cissie knew better than to pry. "That was... probably the best advice I've heard yet," she told him. "So what should I do?"

"You ready to be a hero again?" Luke asked.

"I... I don't know," Cissie said. "I don't really know if I want to be."

"That's fair," Luke agreed. "You don't have to come back. It is your choice."

"I do miss doing archery," Cissie said. "I had a lot of fun practicing."

"So why not do something with that?" another voice asked, and Cissie and Luke both turned slightly to see that Jessica was standing in the doorway behind them.

"I couldn't help overhearing, but I might have a suggestion."

"What's up, Jess?"

"The Summer Games are having tryouts this week," Jessica said. "You could always try for it."

"For the Summer Games?" Cissie said. "Are you crazy?"

"You said you missed archery," Jessica replied calmly.

"I do," Cissie said. "I've never really done competition though."

"Think of it as a big practice run, without the danger," Jessica said. "Look, you love archery, right? I don't see how this can hurt."

"I guess so," Cissie agreed. She got up. "I'm going to go practice. You know, just in case."

"Sounds like a good idea," Jessica agreed, taking Cissie's seat on the couch, and curling up against Luke. "You go have fun."

Cissie left the room, but she paused right outside the door.

"That was a good idea you had there, Jess," Luke was saying.

"Too bad I really shouldn't take credit for it," Jessica answered. "I actually just got off the phone with Bonnie."

"Seriously? I thought she was crazy."

"She is, not that any of us could really talk," Jessica said. "But she told me a lot about Cissie when she was a baby. She knows she can't get back custody, but she's still trying to help. And I think that maybe the games, well... it may not be normal, but it might help her come back to herself a little more. I didn't know her before Elias, but there's something a little bit broken in Cissie, like something is missing. I don't want that for her. I want her to have a better chance, and maybe not end up as fucked up as I am. If I can't help her, then what chance do I have for our kid?"

"We'll make it work," Luke promised. "All of us. Including the baby."

Cissie's eyes teared up a little, and she headed back upstairs to the archery range.


	5. Chapter 5

"This is _insane_ ," Jessica said, as she handed her daughter carefully to Cissie.

"Seriously, Jess, don't worry about it," Cissie said, as she cradled her little sister. "I've got plenty of experience taking care of babies, considering how often Anita has been calling me to babysit her parents.

"Sometimes I think your friends' lives might be even more complicated than mine," Jessica sighed. She turned to look in the mirror, inspecting every inch of the white costume. "Well?" she asked. "How do I look?"

Three-month-old Dani wrinkled her nose and began to cry. Cissie laughed. "I'm not so sure Dani likes it," Cissie said. "But I do." She paused. "Are you sure you really want to do this?"

Jessica didn't hesitate. "Yes," she said firmly. "I know that I can do this. And this is where I want to be, out there with my husband, protecting the city." She shrugged. "If I had said yes to the Avengers how many years ago, things could be different now."

"You could be married to Captain America or something," Cissie laughed.

Jessica laughed with her. "But now I am an Avenger," she said. "And now this is the chance for me to do something better with myself, become part of something greater. Maybe make up for some of the things I did before."

Cissie readjusted the way she was holding Dani, and moved over to kiss her aunt on the cheek. "I'd say you've already more than made up for anything that the Purple Man forced you to do," she said. "You helped me, now you get to help the rest of the world."

Jessica gave her a hug. "Now, you know what to do with Dani, right?"

"This isn't my first time babysitting her," Cissie pointed out. "I know where everything is. I know all the emergency numbers. And I know where to go in case Kang shows up or something." Jessica was about to protest, but Cissie plowed on. "I also know what to do in the case that we get sucked into another dimension, or sent through time. I have emergency frequencies for everyone, and I have my bow. Besides, Jarvis and Mrs. Parker are here also. So it's not like I'm all alone."

Jessica had the grace to look embarrassed. "I know that you're prepared for this."

"And you've let me watch Dani before. Now go! The Avengers are waiting."

"Right," Jessica said, stopping once more to kiss both of her girls. "Avengers Assemble!" She flew out, and Cissie rolled her eyes.

"C'mon, Dani Girl," she said, as she carried the baby out of the room. "Time for your nap, I think." She laid Dani down in her crib and sat down in the really comfy chair that was near it. Her cell phone rang almost instantly.

"Hey," she said. "Do I even want to know how you manage to call exactly when Dani goes down for a nap?"

Her boyfriend laughed. "It's a Bat thing," he told her.

"Seriously, Tim," Cissie said, still pleased that she was able to use his real name. "I think your timing might be the freakiest thing about you, and that is saying something."

"I'm not that freaky," he protested, but he was still laughing as he did so.

"How's San Francisco?" Cissie asked. "And the Titans?"

There was a long pause, and for a minute Cissie thought that they'd been disconnected. She doubted it; Oracle had always made sure that the Bats had the best possible connections. If someone in the Bat clan lost a call, it was either intentional or the end of the world.

"It's interesting," he said finally. "We've... well, Green Arrow sent us a new archer."

"Oh," Cissie said. "Is that a yay?"

"She's okay," Tim said. "She's, well, she isn't you."

That was one of the sweeter things that Cissie had heard him say recently. Her boyfriend was not very good at the romance. This was also apparently a Bat thing.

"I don't mind, if that's what you're afraid of," Cissie told him. "All teams need archers. The Young Avengers have one, even. She's pretty cool. We've trained together a few times. But she keeps insisting that her team has the better name, even though Young Justice was way better than the Young Avengers."

She was sure that Tim was smiling on the other end. "So Young Justice is still your team?" he teased.

"Well, yeah," Cissie said, as she settled down more on the chair. "It was the only team I've ever really been on, unless you count the Summer Games team."

"You could be on the Titans, if you wanted."

"Nah, you really don't need two archers," Cissie said, deliberately misunderstanding what he was saying.

"You could come back," Tim said.

"So you can keep worrying about me?" Cissie said. "No, I don't need it anymore. I'm happy here. I've got the life I want. I've got a family in Jess and Luke and Dani, and I've got you, and I still have the rest of Young Justice. I still have archery. I'm even talking to my mom! She's been trying to be more of a mother than she's ever been before."

"I didn't mean to pressure you," Tim said.

"Yeah, you and everyone else," Cissie muttered. "Just because Jessica is back doing the hero thing, it doesn't mean I have to. I have a good thing, and I don't want to mess it up." She shrugged, even though she knew that Tim couldn't see it. "I mean, if you guys need me. If you really ever do need me, I will be there. I just... my life kinda sucked for a while, and I don't want to go back to that. I really can't, I just _can't_."

"Easy, Cissie," Tim said. "It's okay, nobody is going to force you."

"Could you tell Cassie that?" Cissie asked. "I finally got Luke to stop bugging me about it. I thought that Jessica had understood, but now that she's decided to do the hero thing I'm afraid that since she thinks she can come back, I should team up with her or something." She tried not to roll her eyes.

"Cassie just misses having her best friend around," Tim said.

"Yeah, but we can still do best friend stuff! Jessica and Carol weren't superheroes together, and they did plenty of stuff together." Some of what they had done included things that Tim would probably call poor life decisions, but nobody was perfect.

"Maybe you could come here for a weekend?"

"To see you, or to see Cassie?"

"Both?" Tim asked hopefully.

"I'll try to swing a weekend sometime," Cissie promised. "I'll get Jessica to fly me out or something. But you can always try and come out here."

"I would," Tim said. "It's just... you know how Batman is about the Avengers."

"Is he more important than seeing me?" Cissie said, a shred of jealousy flaring up.

"Of course not," Tim said quickly. "But if I do come, it's going to have to be as Alvin Draper."

"Alvin is better than nothing," Cissie told him. "Especially if it means spending time with you."

"I do miss you," Tim said again. "I wish..."

"Yeah," Cissie said. "So do I."

*

"Still on the phone?" Jessica said, as she walked into the nursery.

"Just hung up, actually," Cissie said. She was rocking Dani back and forth. "Robin wants me to come visit the Titans for a weekend."

"Still trying to get you to come back?" Jessica asked sympathetically.

"I'm kinda surprised that he is, actually," Cissie said. Her agitation must have been radiating through her arms or something, because Dani started to stir. "Shh, sweetie," Cissie said, as she rocked her gently, hoping that she would settle down. "I mean, all he does is worry about me, so I don't know why he thinks my putting a costume back on would improve things."

"He's trying to keep you safe," Jessica said. "Or at least keep you around. I don't really know, considering that you haven't introduced me to him since that time in my apartment."

"Batman's rules are weird," Cissie said, settling Dani back in her crib.

"Well, my rules are that you aren't going to go spend a weekend with him until he introduces himself to me. He can keep the mask on, if he wants to. Nightwing did, when I met him."

"I did _not_ need to know that," Cissie said. "Thanks, _Mom_."

It was a good thing that she had just put Dani back in the crib, because Cissie's arms dropped to her side as she realized what she'd just said.

"Mom?" Jessica said. "Do you really mean that?"

Cissie took a deep breath. "Yeah," she said. "I mean, I'm getting along a lot better with my mother these days, but... you've kinda been like a mom to me for the last year or so. If you don't want me to call you that, I won't. I mean, you have Dani..."

"And I have you too," Jessica said. "C'mon," she said, grabbing the baby monitor and heading out of the room. "Hey, Tony?" she called.

"What?" Iron Man called from the couch where he was watching _Grey's Anatomy_ with Captain America.

"I need a good lawyer."

"What did you do _now_ , Jess?" Iron Man asked. Cissie giggled.

"I'm going to adopt Cissie," Jessica announced. "So go and fucking make this happen already, I know you know someone who can cut through all sorts of red tape." She glanced over at Cissie. "That is, if this is what you really want."

"Yes!" Cissie almost shouted. "That would be wonderful."

"Good," Jessica said. "Tony, why are you still on the couch?"

"I love it when she's bossy," Luke said.

Cissie couldn't stop smiling. One year ago had been the worst day of her life. And now here she was, with the family that she had chosen. She might not be a hero any longer, but she had everything that she'd ever really wanted.


End file.
